Forest Disturbance and Restoration Data Development for SERNbc

Client

Society for Ecological Restoration in Northern British Columbia (SERNbc)

Location

British Columbia, Canada

Project Duration

March 2019 – December 2019

Background

The Province of BC has identified restoration of linear features and other disturbances as a high priority to reduce the density of linear features and total disturbance on the landscape. The Province is developing strategic restoration plans for boreal and central mountain caribou and has implemented pilot ecological and functional restoration projects in boreal and mountain caribou herd ranges.

Services Provided

Hatfield developed high-quality linear and polygon disturbance data for the Northeast Region of British Columbia, Canada, using remote sensing data time series analysis.

The algorithms developed applied time series analysis using the Landsat Archive to reconstruct the land cover history of each pixel since 1985. This analysis detects the pre-disturbance land cover, the date of disturbance, and the rate of recovery of each identified disturbance, thus identifying areas where regrowth since disturbance is insufficient.

This disturbance data will be used to develop regional ecosystem restoration programming and contribute to the Woodland Caribou Recovery Strategy.